‘Their Grandfather’s Chair’ by JM Landels

Twin Journeys

From Pulp Literature Issue 45, JM Landels welcomes us back to the Ilmar, this time through the eyes of Allaigna’s sisters, Branwen and Irdina. Immerse yourselves within their journey with this excerpt from Issue 45, Winter 2025.

Their Grandfather’s Chair
Part 1

by JM Landels

Branwen took a deep breath, absorbing all the salt air she could before she and her sister Irdina had to disembark the Kolmond Lassie. When they left Teillai, winter had set in, and snow was already a hand-span deep on the ground. Here, the streets that led away from Rheran’s port were bare, though the air carried a damp chill.

“At last,” muttered Irdina, shouldering past her twin on her way to the gangplank.

This was the first sea voyage for both of them, but Branwen had taken to the sea like a gannet. Irdina, on the other hand, had been ill for most of the ten-day journey from Werrancross to Rheran. At the bottom of the gangplank, Irdina grasped a bollard and leaned over it, shuddering.

Branwen put her hand on her sister’s shoulder, in part to comfort, but also to steady her own legs, which still swayed with the movement of the ship. “If you’re going to chuck, try to keep it off my shoes this time.”

“Fuck you,” muttered Irdina, who straightened and flexed her shoulders into place. “I’m starving. Let’s find something to eat.”

“We’re supposed to meet an envoy from the Bastion here.” Branwen glanced up at the white stone fortress that dominated the city.

“Well, I don’t see one, do you?”

The pier was busy with sailors and dock workers unloading bales of Aerach wool and linen, barrels of apples, and casks of ale, but there was no one in what might be considered palace livery.

“Grandpapa wouldn’t forget about us, I’m sure,” Branwen said, sounding more confident than she felt. “Angeley wrote him by courier a full week before we left.”

Irdina snorted. “Who knows what he would or wouldn’t forget. We were four the last time we saw him. I barely remember him.”

Just remind him, Angeley had said, of his family, and his love for you all. And if you can—and only if you can without being noticed—put a few grains of this in his food or drink whenever you have the opportunity. She had given them each a stoppered vial of pinkish-yellow salts. But never when Princess Gwannyn is near. Do you understand?

In that moment Branwen and Irdina both had felt the slight push of compulsion in Angeley’s voice: a hint of Leisanmira spellsong that burned her words into their memories.

Read the rest in Pulp Literature Issue 45, Winter 2025!

And for more stories set in the Ilmar, be sure to check out the Allaigna’s Song trilogy by JM Landels.

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JM Landels is the author of the bestselling Allaigna’s Song trilogy as well as the spy novel The Shepherdess, currently serialized in even-numbered issues of this magazine. ‘Their Grandfather’s Chair’, featuring Allaigna’s sisters Branwen and Irdina, takes place during the events of Allaigna’s Song: Chorale.

When she’s not writing, editing, or drawing, you can find Jen teaching people to swing swords and ride horses at Academie Cavallo in Langley, BC. You can find @jmlandels on most social media platforms, and at jmlandels.stiffbunnies.com.